Dragon Pearl Jasmine from Teavivre

Jasmine – Take Me Away!

I swear this stuff is better than any bubble bath for soothing frayed nerves! My jasmine vines are in bloom which set me to hankering for some delicious jasmine tea.

The first jasmine tea I ever tasted was a painful experience. I will try to distance myself emotionally enough to recount it for you. It was EXACTLY like drinking perfume. Or soap. Or something nasty that was supposed to taste like a flower but tasted like chemicals instead. It was synthetically flavored with jasmine, and it showed.

Then along came Teavivre and they sent me a sample of jasmine tea and I nearly wept for sorrow. But then I tried it and….OH JOY! I was hooked. I have had nearly every jasmine tea they make and they are all good, but this may be my favorite, although Peach Jasmine Pearls and Silver Needle Jasmine are all in the running.

The scent caresses your poor overworked brain and then you sip the tea and just taste pure, smooth green tea with essences of naturally infused flavor. It resteeps, too, stretching that tea-buying dollar a little more.

Oh jasmine, jasmine, how do I love thee? I will never be without a Teavivre jasmine on my shelf. (I hope!)


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type:  Green
Where to Buy:  Teavivre
Description

Jasmine “Dragon Pearls” is a deliciously sweet green tea that combines the absolute highest quality green tea with a jasmine aroma and taste. Made from unopened bud and small leaf, this tea hand rolled into small balls, which slowly unfurl during brewing, releasing an amazing taste and aroma combination of green tea and sweet jasmine. Brewing a cup of this sweet, fragrant tea only requires a few tiny pearls!

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Tangy Grapefruit from The Jasmine Pearl

TangyGrapefruitTea Information:

Leaf Type: White

Where to Buy: The Jasmine Pearl

Tea Description:

Tangy Grapefruit White is a blend of organic Chinese Baimudan white tea, grapefruit essential oils, organic calendula petals for color, organic lemongrass, and organic lemon myrtle, brewing a true-to-life grapefruit burst.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

I have been on a mad white tea kick as of late.  Even with all of these fall flavors going on, I feel like in the mornings I’m still gravitating towards a floral or white tea to get me thru my last parts of deadline at work each day.

Today, I saw this little guy hanging out by my bag and knew that today was my day to try this one.  I was a bit excited.  Brewed this up at work with the help of my Sei Sei Tumbler to take care of the brewing part.  Added in water around 190 per the packaging instructions and let this tea steep for about 3 minutes or so.

I loved watching this one steep.  The dry leaf mix was gorgeous with all the lovely long leafs with pops of a bright orange color.

First infusion in and this tea is delicate and lovely.  One that takes you away and allows you to indulge for a moment before the phone starts ringing again and there are emails to read.  This tea gives you that much needed blissful moment where you can wrap your hands around the mug and the the tea do its thing.

The white tea flavor is the first to wash over you and it is delicate with subtle notes of a floral kind.  The grapefruit flavors are there but they really don’t become prominent until that last part of each sip.  That last part of the sip is where all the tangy grapefruit lovin is. Wow.

Another impressive tea from The Jasmine Pearl.  I’m really digging this one and heading now to the kitchen to prep up more water for my second infusion.  This tea is a keeper!

Licorice Green Tea from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants

licoricegreenTea Information:

Leaf Type:  Green

Where To Buy:  The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants

Tea Description:

Licorice root, fennel, anise, and gunpowder green tea, with a touch of cloves brews up sweet to the taste and full of licorice loveliness.

Learn more about this blend here.

Taster’s Review:

I know I’ve mentioned Chuck’s Produce several times on this blog.  I love this store!  It not only offers great produce, but other high quality foods as well, including some great teas from local vendors like The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants.

In the bulk section of Chuck’s, I can get these teas bulk, which means I can get as little or as much as I want.  I like that flexibility, because as I’ve said before, I’m a tea taster.  I like to try a little bit of every tea rather than having a large quantity of a favorite.  And the bulk section lets me get just enough for a pot full of tea, but not so much that I’ll have more than I need.

So, when I noticed this Licorice Green Tea from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants, I was excited!  I love licorice!

This has a powerful licorice flavor from not only licorice root, but also fennel and anise.  It tastes licorice-y, reminiscent of a strong black licorice candy.  The clove comes in and cuts through the licorice a little bit to keep it from tasting like those licorice cough drops.  The clove is just the right touch for this blend.

With my first couple of sips, I found myself wondering where the green tea was in this blend, because I really couldn’t taste it.  All I was tasting was licorice and clove.  But after a few sips, the smooth flavor of the Gunpowder green tea came though.  The green tea notes are a little overwhelmed here.  I taste the nutty flavor of the green tea, and a soft buttery note which is something that I don’t usually note in a gunpowder green.  I find it interesting how different ingredients in a blend like this can bring out different qualities in a tea that I haven’t really experienced (or rarely experienced.)

Even though I feel like some of the green tea flavor is lost here, I really do like the licorice-i-ness of this tea.  This tea is a licorice lover’s delight, but this isn’t that wimpy fruit flavored licorice stuff that they sell at the concession stand in a movie theater.  This is REAL licorice flavor, so if that’s not your thing, this is not the tea for you.

Tangy Grapefruit White Tea Blend from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants

tangygrapefruit

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  White

Where To Buy:  The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants

Tea Description:

Tangy Grapefruit White is a blend of organic Chinese Baimudan white tea, grapefruit essential oils, organic calendula petals for color, organic lemongrass, and organic lemon myrtle, brewing a true-to-life grapefruit burst.

Learn more about this blend here.

Taster’s Review:

When I go into my local grocery store – Chuck’s Produce – I’m always happy to see teas from local purveyors on their shelves … like this Tangy Grapefruit White Tea Blend from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants.  Of course, it makes sense to have a locally based grocery store like Chuck’s Produce to carry some of the locally crafted products like this tea, but it still makes me happy to see this store supporting local businesses.

And of course, I found the flavor intriguing, as I’m always happy to try a new grapefruit flavored tea.  And while I can’t say that this is my favorite grapefruit tea that I’ve tried, it’s a really tasty grapefruit offering.  I think that it might be the lemon myrtle and the lemon grass that’s throwing this off just a little bit, because I’m tasting a distinct lemon note along with the grapefruit and even a hint of lime.

Not that that’s bad, of course … lemon and lime go quite nicely with the grapefruit and add an interesting dimension of flavor.  And the grapefruit notes are not lost in the presence of the other citrus tones.  This is a very flavorful, tangy citrus-flavored tea.  But it’s not as much grapefruit as I was expecting.

But, let’s focus on what this tea is.  There is a nice Bai Mu Dan base that is sweet and offers hints of an earthy flavor.  I like that contrasting note with the bright citrus tones.  There is a very nice grapefruit-y flavor here that is sweet and tart.  There is just a hint of that grapefruit bitterness to it too.  This tastes like grapefruit and I notice that flavor before the palate picks up on the lemon and lime notes.

And I like their contributions here too.  This is a very “sunny” tasting tea, and it’s quite a nice tea to be sipping on a rather dreary looking autumn day.  And I don’t mean dreary looking in a bad way … this is my favorite kind of day and I like it when it’s cold and dreary!  All the sunshine I need is coming from my teacup right now!

A very enjoyable tea blend.  I like this hot but it’s really nice iced too!